The latter was the case for the No. 4 Fairview Warriors (22-3) on March 6, as they fell to the No. 1 Cleveland Central Catholic Ironmen (15-9), 69-41, in a Division II District semi-final game at North Ridgeville High School.

“They achieved everything that we could, minus today obviously,” Fairview coach Ryan Barry said. “Their team is big, and unfortunately we did not schedule a team, other than Bay, who had size similar to what we saw tonight. You know what? For it to be 25-15 at the half and we hadn’t hit a shot from the outside other than one, I liked our chances. I thought if we had continued that and hold them to 50 and we don’t win – I’m fine with that.”

Despite being able to only knock down one outside shot, the Warriors seemed to be clicking on offense, as they went 5-of-8 from the field and outscored the Ironmen, 13-10.

However, the success in the first quarter did not translate to the second, as Fairview managed to score just two points, going 0-for-6 from behind the arc while knocking down just one field goal out of two they attempted.

“When we had position boxing out, we didn’t try to move bodies,” Barry said. “I think the effort was there, they were just over the top of us and they got a couple of put-backs. That second charge foul on Luke (Howes) certainly didn’t help because he made the bucket and the kid slid his feet, but that’s how the game goes. I think that’s where the momentum swings really happened to kind of close out the half, but we got a little stagnant, and we were trying to set ball screens with Luke because they were face guarding and then they would double the screener and we kept dribbling away from them. We just weren’t disciplined in what we wanted to execute.”

Cleveland Central Catholic closed out the first half of the game shooting 9-of-17 from the field, while hauling in 10 rebounds and forcing Fairview to turn the ball over seven times, despite struggling early on the first quarter.

“Yeah, we’re the No. 1 seed, but we have to remember that none of these guys have ever played in a district before or played in big games like that,” Cleveland Central Catholic boy’s head basketball coach Jordan Duke said. “I’m sure the first quarter was a lot of jitters to be out there, and the second quarter we kind of got back to what we do defensively, and they got a little bit more focused and we held a really good offensive team to two points.”

One of the many factors in the win for the Ironmen was their size, as big man Taryl Davis had 22 points and nine rebounds followed by Deshaun Nettles who chipped in 12 points and five rebounds.

“We kind of try and lean our hat on that,” Duke said about rebounding. “We knew that if we could hold them to one shot that we would have a good opportunity to have a lead or be in it throughout the whole game and that’s kind of our key, which is to rebound on both ends of the floor.”

Despite their season ending, things appear to be bright for Fairview. They lose four seniors, two of which were major contributors, but return their starting five for next year.

“Yeah, we have all five starters coming back and that’s great,” Barry said. “We had two seniors that really played some decent minutes for us off the bench. They were just good strong athletes and what they gave us is gonna be hard to replace next year, but I have some hungry juniors who did a lot of watching this year, who are upset about it and should be. It is reassuring, but a lot of things have to go right to have the success that we had. You have to stay mostly injury free, you have to get a call here and there and the ball has to bounce your way and you have to make big shots and they did that this year. That stuffs not given, so we have a lot of work to do next year to even come close to what we did this year.”